BYT Empire

Brightest Young Things


Another WTF track (see yesterday), this time from Paul McCartney's second solo album, McCartney II, released in 1980. Which is a pretty WTF album altogether, consisting of a number of studio experiments done by Paul in his home studio while Wings was on it's last breath, repeating history a bit as his first weirdo solo album was released a decade earlier as The Beatles were imploding.

Here is Temporary Secretary, a bizarre nasally synth monstrosity, that was actually chosen as a single, and verges on unlistenable, but has a sort of charm to it too.  I guess.

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Previously in BYT Fav Song of the Day:

God loves a cheerful giver.

COMMENTS (6)

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4 months ago Dale said


This is a fantastic track. Way ahead of its time. Unlistenable? Sheesh, get new ears, dude. There's a whole slew of McCartney releases in the 80s that I ignore but McCartney II is a head trip. Great weird album.

4 months ago gmljr said

I think that you mixed up the letters; should be FTW, not WTF.

4 months ago Cale said

chill out dudes - note the title of this column

4 months ago Ricky Taylor said

Nice post Cale! Did you ever hear the b-side to this single? It's called Secret Friend. Well worth a listen. McCartney invented chillwave--LOL!


4 months ago Cale said

@Ricky Taylor: Totally! It's usually tacked on to the end of the CD pressings, including the nice 2011 remaster. Also - the Waterfalls b-side Check My Machine is great too:

4 months ago Drew said


Ugh. Sorry I guess i read right over the column name. Doh. Anyway, Waterfalls is a gorgeous melody. I never thought the song's lyrics made much sense (not unusual for Paul) but recently I read that the song was about Paul's fears about his children being kidnapped and hurt. He apparently didn't want to say that explicitly because he didn't want to plant the idea in some nutcase's head. But if that is what the song is about, the lyrics actually make sense because they talk about cautioning someone to be careful, don't take crazy risks, don't go home with strangers, etc.

Good call on Secret Friend and Check My Machine. Can't believe he was talked out of putting those on the album.

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